BrandWatch – October 2015

As part of efforts to clean up their portfolios, a group of institutional investors worth a combined £46bn are urging nine companies, including Glencore, BP, Procter & Gamble and Rio Tinto, to cut ties with EU lobbying groups they believe hold regressive positions on climate change.

Coordinated by Share Action, a charity that promotes responsible invest-ment, the investors have written to top management at the multinationals, calling on them to reconsider their memberships of trade associations including Brussels-based BusinessEurope and the European Chemical Industry Council.

Arne Lööw, head of corporate governance at Swedish national pension fund Fjärde AP-fonden, says: “We believe it is important that investors put pressure on companies who are financing associations seeking to undermine climate legislation.”

In a published response, BusinessEurope describes the concerns expressed by investors as “inaccurate”, “misleading” and “biased.”

Uber accused of causing unemployment in Brazil

Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, has criticised app-based ride-sharing service Uber for contributing to unemployment in Latin America’s largest economy, and has called on local authorities to regulate the service.

Conventional taxi drivers across Brazil have been staging protests and lobbying lawmakers to ban the app, which they believe gives Uber drivers an unfair advantage due to...

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Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney told the annual Accounting For Sustainability meeting that it is too early to make TCFD disclosure mandatory, though he accused insurers of 'cognitive dissonance' on climate risk. Terry Slavin reports